Another day down.
13 May 2013 | Heading west
Bill
The last 24 hours of the crossing have been great. The wind has been up and down but is still hovering at about 15 knots. Though it is mainly out of the east, there are times it changes over to northeast which makes the sailing easier as we don't need to gybe so often. We covered 116 miles again yesterday but some of that wasn't so much taking us toward Palau. It was go north of our course and then go south of our course all to get to the way points I put in before leaving Pohnpei. There are some reefs and atolls out here we want to make sure we miss. One, Eauripik Atoll is about 80 miles in front of us. We've been following Tom and Janis on Tomboys course figuring if it's good for them, it will be good for us. They left bout 6 weeks ago and have already left Palau for Dili in East Timor. About the only change we have done to their route was to take us north of Eauripik Atoll instead of south as they did. The winds are better for us to follow that line west.. Our charts show the symbol of a ship wreck on it and we don't want to add another to it.
Having covered 907 miles on our passage, we hope the rest is as nice though the weather forecast is for the winds to start diminishing by late Saturday and into Sunday. If they get too light, we may have to motor and with fuel at over $5.30/ gallon, I hate racking up bills like that.
Right now, it's blowing nicely with small white capped waves out of the northeast with the bluest seas imaginable. Maybe 20% cloud cover but the Sun keep getting through so it get hot on deck. The "kids" are settled in below snoozing with Blue waiting for later in the day when she comes out on deck. Typically, she is out first thing in the morning and then in to hide from the Sun when the decks get too hot and shade vanishes and then back on deck about 1730 as the Sun is in the process of setting. She stays out till about 2130 and then has to go below as we don't trust her on deck after the Sun goes down.
Other than that, Tracy is stitching another Michael Powell project that she's had on board since. we left Mexico and I'm reading the manual for Adobe Photoshop Elements #8. Bought the program when we were still in the US and it's time to read and learn about how to use it. Having installed new 750 gig hard drives in our MacBook, I now have plenty of space for what ever I create. Of course the downside is that I'm color blind so heaven only knows what my finished pictures will turn out looking like. With internet being more dependable on Palau, I should be able to upload some. The cost for internet varies but it's currently at $10.00US for 7 hours of internet. Still by far, the best and cheapest internet out here is in Fiji. No country has come close.
Last night was another starry night with no moon per say for most of it. A few scattered clouds marched by blocking them out from time to time but the show was incredible. Let's hope the weather we have continues till we get to Palau. It's been a great trip so far and I'd like to see it continue.